Fungal infections are prevalent in several clinical settings, particularly in immunocompromised patients. The emergence of resistance to antimycotics, in particular to the azoles, has increased interest in therapeutic and prophylactic vaccination against these fungi [1]. Among fungal pathogens, Candida albicans is one of the most prevalent. This organism is one of the principal agents of widespread opportunistic infections in humans and causes candidiasis, a condition which is found in both normal and immunocompromised patients.
There is widespread consensus in the field of medical mycology that cellular immunity is critical for successful host defence against fungi [2], although the potential efficacy of humoral immunity in protecting against two major fungal pathogens (C. albicans and C. neoformans) has attracted attention [3]. For C. neoformans, antibodies to the capsular glucuronoxylomannan have been shown to mediate protection in animal models of infection. For C. albicans, cell-surface mannoproteins are the dominant antigenic components of C. albicans and antibodies to mannan, proteases and a heat shock proteins have been associated with protection against infection. Other vaccine candidates include: members of the aspartyl proteinase (Sap2) family; the 65 kDa mannoprotein (MP65) [4]; adhesion molecules isolated from phosphomannan cell wall complexes [5]; peptides which mimic epitopes from the mannan portion of the phosphomannan complex of Candida [6]; and hemolysin-like proteins [7].
Glucans are glucose-containing polysaccharides found inter alia in fungal cell walls. α-glucans include one or more α-linkages between glucose subunits and β-glucans include one or more β-linkages between glucose subunits. Within a typical fungal cell wall, β-1,3-glucan microfibrils are interwoven and crosslinked with chitin microfibrils to form the inner skeletal layer, whereas the outer layer consists of β-1,6-glucan and mannoproteins, linked to the inner layer via chitin and β-1,3-glucan.
In C. albicans, 50-70% of the cell wall is composed of β-1,3- and β-1,6-glucans. Protective antibodies against C. albicans β-1,6-glucan have been generated in mice [8]. Mice in which anti β-1,6-glucan antibodies were raised by idiotypic vaccination with mannoprotein-depleted C. albicans cells were shown to have some protection against systemic challenge by C. albicans. Furthermore, mice passively immunised with these anti β-1,6-glucan antibodies demonstrated a raised level of protection against C. albicans. 
It is an object of the invention to provide further and better monoclonal antibodies for inducing therapeutic immune responses against infections, particularly against microbial infections.